Pumpkin Patch

J and W's preschool took a little field trip to a local pumpkin patch this week. I hadn't realized until we got there that we haven't been to a real pumpkin patch in a couple of years. In Florida, we always went to a little set-up our church put together on their property. It was hard to get pictures because we were right next to a highway. Same with our previous city in Florida...we went to our church as well. So the last time we went to a real patch is while visiting our friends in Indiana one fall. So even though this pumpkin patch was small, it was nice to have an actual field of pumpkins and a nice back drop for pictures.

I had to crop this picture because my finger or something was in the corner of the picture...but I think it is so cute of W:

J running through the patch:

W in the patch:

J looking SO grown-up!

Me having to tickle the boys to get them to smile:

Otherwise, I get this:

More running and more blue skies:

Pumpkin patches are sparse this year due to water shortages. And this farm said their pumpkin crop was almost destroyed when we had a hail storm in July. I remember the storm too because our landscapers were outside working when it started to hail.

And finally, a picture with their class...watch out for the sword J!

We are really blessed with this preschool and their teachers. Yay Fall!

Birthday Bonanza

We had quite a fun weekend! Two birthday parties on Saturday and Halloween festivities at the base on Sunday. We were excited for the first birthday party because it was at one of those bouncy castle places...and the boys have never been before. The LOVED it and were sweaty and red-faced by the time we left.

Later in the afternoon we (the boys and I...Geoff had a work weekend) went to a place about 30 minutes from here called Camp Cowboy.

The theme was pirates.

Lucky for us, the boys' pirate costumes from two years ago still fit (kind of). The party was crazy! There were horses in corrals everywhere. Then it was time for pony rides!

...or donkey rides:

I was in shock at the difference one year makes. Just last year the boys ran away screaming and and crying from a horse. When they called W's name for his turn on the pony, he dashed over without even hesitating.
Here are the boys watching the other kiddos ride after they had a turn.

While we were eating dinner, a surprise guest arrived. A goat!

I wish I had my video camera. I was laughing so hard at this goat. It was if he was trained to be the star of the party. He was chasing after the kids, the kids were chasing after him, a couple of dogs were chasing him...and he loved every minute of it. The boys just stopped eating and stared (with their mouths open) at a large group of screaming kids running after the speedy goat. J looked at me and calmly said "Mommy, I just want one more hot dog (he already had two) and then I will chase the goat." Like he chases goats every day.

Next up, pinatas:

During the pinatas a pig arrived and was sniffing around the horses. He wasn't as interested in the kids like the goat.
And then I heard a lot of noise and saw this:

Wagon rides too! Sorry for the blurriness. I learned that it is very difficult to manage taking pictures when Geoff isn't with me to help. I was so busy with the boys and their gear and getting dinner that I definitely had trouble getting any really great photos.

Here is J hiding from a pirate:

I can't forget about the birthday cakes. They were amazing. They didn't even look like cakes! One was a pirate ship with nutella buttercream frosting...oh my.

The other was a treasure chest cake...I will have to find out who made the cakes! You can kind of see it here:

They were both really fun parties. I think I might have been more exhausted then J and W that night though.

Goings On

My camera was just full of a variety of pictures. Pictures of the boys. Pictures of the garage, pictures of projects, pictures of the boys riding their bikes and playing tag, etc...so I thought I would just post a variety this time around.

A couple of fun pictures of the boys chasing each other around the house:

Caught you!

It was very ironic that I had my camera in my car all week...and then put it in the house yesterday morning. Then yesterday late afternoon, the boys and I were driving home, and saw not one, but two rainbows in the sky! And as we were looking at the rainbows (they were directly in front of us while we were driving)...a family of deer decided to walk across the road in front of us.) I felt like I was in a Lucky Charms commercial or something...and of course, no camera. But we made it home before the rainbow disappeared and managed to get a picture.

Ta Da!

Speaking of random occurrences...I left the house early this morning (still dark) to go jogging. As soon as I made it to our driveway I heard rustling in the area next to our fence...then saw the silhouette of a fox. Still more rustling. Then saw a fox (not a little fox...a big fox) cross the street and went up the hill and turned around and looked straight in my eyes. I was frozen in my spot and knew that I might be in the midst of a fox family...one on the far side of the street, and the others near me. I took a couple of slow steps and started to talk to the fox like it was our dog or something. I believe I said something like "helllooo little fox. it's OK." And it made a loud piercing yelp sound at me. Whether it was directed at me or her family I did not feel comfortable progressing any further based on the way that fox was looking at me. So I RAN back to the front door (my heart was racing) and decided to drive up the hill to my friend's house instead.

No pictures of the fox...but one of my sleepy head J waking for the day...I just love these new little pajamas on him.

Last weekend Geoff came upon an amazing deal on a MASSIVE garage shelf. Home Depot had lots of shelves on clearance and with our military discount (and no sales tax) this shelf totaled about $44 and change. We were able to get loads of stuff off the garage floor. We can see our stuff and find it easily now. It is the large shelf on the right.

While we were in the garage, the boys were zooming around on their new little bicycles. All of sudden J starting doing tricks saying "this is what Jordan (his friend up the street) does on his bike":

I also did another little decorating project. I first saw these pumpkins on my friend Heather's blog last year and LOVED them. So I copied her. I love how they turned out.

And to wrap up this very random post of "goings on", here are the boys very into a helicopter game on Geoff's I-TOUCH.

Happy Birthday Geoff!

Give me a 3! and a 5! Happy 35th birthday honey!

Geoff' (and Uncle Matt) celebrated another birthday last week (I just realized this post never got posted-I can't seem to get blogger to upload pictures and it is doing it again. I can't get the picture with Geoff and the boys to post!) So I will have to add that picture later.

I made a chocolate cake. It tasted delicious.

But it was not very pretty.

It looks like I backed over it with my car.

I am blaming the altitude. Really. I think I need to start paying attention to the "high altitude" baking instructions. We are over 4,000 feet here. I noticed this the last time I made another cake that I have made at least 30 times before...it just kind of sank. I made two 8-inch rounds and they both sank so I only made half a cream cheese frosting recipe (I always seem to have way too much after) and just didn't bother covering the sides. It wasn't going to help the cause too much.

In the Sticks

A local antique store had this amazing Halloween set-up that I had to copy! It was a great branchy tree with crows and spiders, etc. I wanted to buy the "tree" but it wasn't for sale. The decorator at the store told me exactly how to do it. And that it is "very easy" to make. So I enlisted my good friend Heather because 1. she is very fun 2. she is much more talented at crafty, home projects than I am and will ever be) and 3. who wants to go into the woods with a hand saw alone? :)

So we picked up some Starbucks (for extra energy) and headed off into the woods. Did I mention that Heather is pregnant? And it was hot? And the branches required a little bit of effort to cut down with a hand saw...I feel kind of bad now that I made her come with me!

But it was a good thing I did because eagle-eye Heather spotted the bushes right away and we were able to get some branches. Just a few...

I trashed Geoff's trunk though--sorry!

Here is a look after my first trimming attempt:

Using some smaller branches for practice:

Seeing what it would like on the table:

I was being very conservative when I trimmed becauseI was afraid I would take too much off.

So I kept trimming...and trimming...even while the boys were "trimming" the tree with the fun decorations we found.

Crows!

And bats!

And skeletons...spooky....

The braver I get the more branches I remove. The "model" tree in the store was very bare so I know it will look OK!

We had fun with our first Halloween decorating project! So excited that it is October already!